Sporty Group acquires Sociable Soccer
Acquisition marks Sporty Group's entry into mobile and games market
Tower Studios' arcade-style football game series Sociable Soccer has been acquired by Sporty Group.
The acquisition marks the sports media platform's first entry into the mobile and video gaming market.
It will oversee the global release of the game which is a spiritual successor to the Sensible Soccer series designed by Tower Studios CEO and creative director Jon Hare.
Sociable Soccer 24 released on Steam and Nintendo Switch in late 2023, and is set to launch on Xbox and PlayStation later this year.
Hare will continue to lead development on Sociable Soccer under the acquisition, utilising Sporty Group's resources.
Sporty Group runs the betting and gaming brand SportyBet, sports app Sporty.com, and owns and operates SportyTV which offers live broadcasts of premium sports in Nigeria and Ghana.
"Bringing our talented development team under the Sporty umbrella allows us to continue to focus on what we do best, designing and creating hit games for as many platforms and gamers as possible," said Hare.
"To be able to do this safely in the knowledge that we have a highly successful, growing sports entertainment conglomerate behind us makes Sporty the ideal partner for us as it will allow us to build better games and expand our audience."
Sporty Group vice president of business development Gregory Parsons added: "Once we sat down with Jon and his team it was clear that we shared the same ambitions and we were only too happy to bring them into the Sporty family. We have great plans for the future of Sociable Soccer and view this as just the beginning of a journey."
Last October, GamesIndustry.biz spoke with Hare about the Sociable Soccer series and it securing the FIFPRO licence for more than 10,000 real-world players with more to be added.